Finally, Attacker Sentenced

After months of delays and false starts in his sentencing, a Highland Park restaurateur convicted last September of the attempted murder of a family friend has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Before Alfred Hong was sentenced by Lake County Judge John T. Phillips, Assistant State's Atty. Patricia Fix read into the record a victim impact statement prepared by the victim, Rose Yee, 69.

Fix said Yee was too devastated to face Hong in court.

The 53-year-old Hong attempted to murder the woman he called "aunt" in August 1997 by slashing her wrists and trying to smother her as she slept in her home in the 500 block of Elm Place in Highland Park. His attack was thwarted when the victim's husband, who was asleep in another room, heard her cries for help and restrained Hong until police arrived.

"My confidence and trust have been shattered," said Fix, reading from Yee's statement. "This man we treated like a son--he lied to us. We were always willing to help him. He did steal money, but he took so much more from us. He brought shame, humiliation, disgrace and dishonor (on himself)."

Hong owned a restaurant, Lung Wah, across the street from where the Yees lived. Rose Yee, a distant relative of Hong, sponsored him to come to the U.S. from Hong Kong and helped finance his restaurant with tens of thousands of dollars.

The state successfully argued that Hong wanted to kill Rose Yee because she was about to discover that he was using the Yees' credit cards and stealing thousands of dollars from the couple's bank accounts to finance a gambling habit.

During the trial, the defense argued that Hong had suffered a brief psychotic episode the night of the attack, brought on by the immense stress of increasing financial burdens.

Fix said after the sentencing hearing late Thursday that although the state asked for consecutive sentences of 30 years for the attempted murder conviction and 10 years for a conviction on home invasion, prosecutors were satisfied with the outcome.

"It was an extremely fair sentence which took into account the violence of the crime and its premeditation," she said.

Hong, who had been free on a $300,000 bond before his conviction, has been in the Lake County Jail since his conviction.